Promoting merchandise within a retail environment using product displays and fixtures are well known in the art. Promotional displays serve to catch the attention of customers, spark an interest in a product, and to eventually persuade customers to purchase the product. Displays attempt to accomplish this in any one of a variety of ways and may take any form. But in particular, product displays need to set a product apart from its competition within a retail environment, without being too excessive or intrusive to customers.
Some of the more common methods of merchandising use images, posters, signage or banners to promote a product. Because of the widespread use of such imagery, however, such displays tend to be too plain and blend into a retail setting. To further set a product apart from its surroundings, some displays may employ sound effects, music, video or other media. However, the volume on such displays may be set too low for the environment to effectively advertise the product. Alternatively, the continuous playback of such media may prove to be too loud, annoying, and deter rather than attract customers. Although some displays also provide motion sensors to play such media only when customers are nearby, the sensors are often too sensitive and do not help to that effect. While there are several ways to promote a product at the point of sale, the more effective methods tend to provide alluring displays that also allow customers to fully sample the product. More specifically, a method of displaying a product may provide a proper showcase and a demonstration, or dummy model, of a particular product for customers to evaluate and test in the store before purchase.
With respect to lighting products, a demonstration model of the product may be displayed within the store. However, displays promoting lighting products are generally uninteresting, unattractive, and offer customers limited, if any, interaction with the device. Furthermore, typical retail stores do not provide an elaborate display for only one product or manufacturer. Specifically, if a demonstration model is provided for one lighting unit it will almost certainly be surrounded by several other similar displays for competing units grouped into the same aisle, department, or the like. This arrangement makes it difficult to set a particular lighting product apart from the competition. Additionally, light from surrounding units and strong overhead lights typically found in retail stores make it extremely difficult to evaluate the illumination of a single lighting product.
Methods of promoting fragrance objects similarly provide demonstration bottles or testers for sampling. Testers are bottles of perfume that customers can spray into the air or onto a sampling card at the point of sale to sample a scent. However, multiple testers from different manufacturers are usually grouped together in a single area designated for sampling. As with displays for lighting products, this makes it difficult to distinguish and advertise one particular fragrance product over the competition. Furthermore, testers are generally provided only for perfumes and colognes, but not for fragrance dispensers designed for the home. Consequently, when selecting a fragrance for home use, customers are forced to guess by reading the description on package labels, smelling the packaging, or opening the package in the store.
Therefore, multiple needs exist for an effective method of displaying and merchandising products that provides an interesting destination within a retail environment as well as proper demonstrations of products associated with lighting, fragrance, or the like. More specifically, needs exist for a method of displaying products that attracts customers from a distance, sets the products apart from the competition, substantially blocks unwanted ambient light, and also provides customer interaction. The ideal method of displaying should also be cost-conscious and provide a display that may be easily installed and readily adaptable to new products or changing retail environments. The display provided by such a method should also require minimal space and mountable on existing shelving units.